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How to be Single: Beautiful Mess

So I just saw How to be Single, and I’m not sure if this is the kind of movie I’d want to see again.

It has the similar touch of Love Actually or New Year’s Eve, or movies similar to those. The many characters with overlapping story lines, conflicts that are too real to our own, and daily struggles so close to home, that we can’t help but go, “That’s just how I am too,” while watching it.

So we meet Alice (Dakota Johnson) who lives with her sister Meg (Leslie Mann) a doctor who doesn’t want relationship or children, and doesn’t have time for any of them either.

Alice had a long term boyfriend, Josh, but she left him to be a paralegal. Later on, when she decides that she is done with the breakup and wants him back, she finds out that he’s already seeing someone else.

At work, Alice becomes friends with Robin (Rebel Wilson), a party girl who enjoys flings and doesn’t seem like she wants commitment in any way.

Then we meet Tom (Anders Holm), a bartender who enjoys his commitment free life and is friends with the girls. Then one day Tom meets Lucy (Alison Brie), a girl who is a believer of soulmate and the one, and realizes that he has feelings for her.

We all get to these people grow and change. Meg falls in love with the idea of having babies, and decides that she wants to be a mother. With a sperm donor, she ends up pregnant. However, right after, she meets Ken, a much younger man who falls deeply in love with her. He keeps trying to win her heart, and in the end, convinces her to let him be a part of her life, raising the baby together.

Then we see how Alice, the ever so forever pining for Josh moves on. She dates David, the widower with a daughter, only to be dumped over doing something his deceased wife used to do with the daughter.

We also see Lucy, who meets and scares a guy during a three week relationship. She then has an emotional breakdown while reading stories to little children at a bookstore, and ends up falling for the bookstore owner.

Then poor Tom, trying to get to Lucy, realizes that she doesn’t feel the same way towards him. And he has to move on with his life.

Of course the most refreshing is Robin, who does not give a shit about anything. She turns out to be the coolest gal around, and I am not surprised because she’s played by Rebel Wilson.

In the end, we are left with two happy couples and three single friends: Alice, Tom, and Robin, who don’t seem to mind and eventually find themselves in solitude. Robin is, of course, very much sure of herself and doesn’t need the time to figure things out.

It’s funny, and it’s sweet. I like how it shows the audience that there is nothing wrong with being single. That in being single, you get to enjoy moments just as precious as you do when you’re with someone else.

That you can find yourself in your solitude. And to me, it’s important.

Sometimes what we want, is not what we need. What we think we are, might not be who we are. If you watch closely, you will see how every single character gets what truly belongs to her or him.

I think this is an entertaining film, and I believe it’s rewatchable.

I give How to be Single 6/10. If you think you need to see this movie, see it. It doesn’t hurt.